The Rivers State government has advocated for an increase in income allocation accruals to states in order to enable them to develop their own potential.
The State Governor, Nyesom Wike revealed this in his keynote address while declaring open the South-South Zonal Public Hearing on the review of the existing revenue allocation.
The event was organised by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in Port Harcourt while Wike was represented by the Deputy Governor, Mrs Ipalibo Banigo.
He said the “current revenue allocation formula, an outcome of the military fiat of 1992 has gone 22 years of democratic dispensation, obviously could not meet the present realities’’ in the nation.
He noted that the federal government was overburdened and overloaded and could not efficiently deliver a federal system as envisaged.
He said that the states were undertaking so much in security and logistics for security as well as mass infrastructure, adding that in Rivers, 10 overhead bridges were being built.
According to him, we envisage the future and we have a city that has so much traffic.
‘Apart from that, we have other infrastructures going on in our communities, in all our 23 local government areas, bridges, jetties, tertiary institutions, and all that.
Read Also: Anambra: PDP Cautions Against Declaring State Of Emergency
‘It is just only fair that the federal government should reduce its loads and the allocations to the federal government should be reduced,’ he said.
Wike, who earlier received Chief Elias Mbam, the Chairman of the Commission, in his office during a courtesy call, urged the commission to reduce the federal government allocation to 40 percent.
He also called for an increase to the states to 40 percent as well as the local governments to 20 percent.
‘In that way, most of the responsibilities that belong to the federal government will now be taken away and given to the states,’ he said.
Wike stated that the current revenue sharing formula of 52.68 percent to federal government, 26.72 percent to states, and 20.60 percent to states was not acceptable.
He noted that the 1992 population figure, public school enrolment, public hospital bed spaces, land mass were used as formulas for the revenue allocation.
The governor called for a more equitable formula that would take into consideration the current population figure, enrolment in private schools, and the number of bed spaces in private hospitals.
According to him, using the same formula of 1992 as a basis for revenue allocation in this country is so unfortunate.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK